NMPI Projects: FoResilience

Fostering Resilience through evidence-based water policies: the role of river basin authorities

Project summary

A great of deal of
investment both financial and otherwise has been made into scientific water
resources research over the last couple of decades. There is no doubt immense
contributions have been made to global efforts to holistically manage
water resources especially considering the threat posed by climate change. Models have
played a significant role in this effort especially in
computer-based simulation research. Recently, the effective impact of numerical models in
the development of robust climate-proofing policies to foster resilience has
been questioned. There is a growing list of literature that seems to suggest “a
disconnect” between the modeling sciences and the policy world. River Basin Authorities (RBA)
present a unique opportunity as test-beds where numerical model output can be
stress-tested and their influence on policies as well as other management options assessed.

River basin
authorities or their equivalent will be studied during the lifespan of the project. In the initial
stages of the work, three river basin management entities will be selected in a case study format.
They include the Yellow River Basin Commission (YRBC) in China, the RhineRiver
Commission (RRC) in Western Europe and the VoltaBasin Authority (VBA) in West Africa. In the fourth river basin, the Arkansas in the United States, basin management is undertaken within a sectorial framework without a centralized decision-making entity. The latter provides a control for the proposed methodology. Key water
management issues will be identified to form the basis of the subject matter to be addressed in
each of the river basins. The first such issue to go under the microscope is
basin-scale minimum flow requirements for ecosystem sustenance. Environmental
flows are important to riparian ecosystems and human livelihoods especially in developing and transition basins. Proposed
plans to improve the assessment of “adequate” flow requirements are evaluated
and the willingness to incorporate the latter into long-term water management
policy will be assessed. The objective at this early stage of the study is to
uncover the latent ability of natural ecosystems to contribute to river basin resilience
as well as the influence numerical models used to study minimum flows have on
medium to long-term basin wide policies. The work is also expected to yield
novel tools and methods to assess the influence of issue-specific numerical
models on river basin policy processes giving different developmental,
infrastructural and socio-economic settings. The study is also an attempt to
contribute to the work in the realm of numerical model uptake for effective and
efficient policy development.

Climate change is
expected to affect the three regions understudy to varying degrees. Economic
growth and populations pressures are also different, not to mention
institutional inertia, culture and local capacity. The common denominator
remains the urgent need for evidence-based climate-proofing policies to build
resilience in the target basins.

Principal investigators

Yahua WANG, Tsinghua University, School of Public Policy and Management, China

Yi HE, King's College London, School of Social Science and Public Policy, Dept of Geography, United Kingdom

Beaudry KOCK, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept of Urban Studies & Planning, United States of America

Presentations

European Geoscience Union Annual General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, April 15-20, 2008. Fostering resilience through evidence-based water policies: the role of river basin authorities. Abstract [PDF] and poster [PDF]